Whom is your favorite scientist?

Question: Whom is your favorite scientist?

Asked by terrytibbs to Marianne, Andrew, Emma on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: About. This question was also asked by smilies123, custardcreams.
- Marianne Baker answered on 14 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi terrytibbs,
  
  I thought about this one earlier.
  I’ve mentioned David Attenborough elsewhere and I think I’d have to go for him. He’s a fantastic zoologist and communicator and has inspired so many people (myself included).
  I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to see animals and plants all over the planet from my own home – as a family we’ve never really been on holidays so without these kinds of programmes, I’d have had no idea! As I only got on the internet when I was 12…
  
  Other than that there are of course other brilliant individuals like Darwin, his predecessors and contemporaries (without whom I’d not be a geneticist of course!!), Hawking with his amazing ideas and also communication work having overcome things in his own life that would best most of us.
  
  Einstein and Newton in terms of maths, then the fathers of modern science; Aristotle and others!
  
  I think it’s very difficult to pick just one person.
  As Newton said, in science, we stand on the shoulders of giants – the work of those before us is just as important as the work now because without it, we’d have to start all over again!
- anon answered on 19 Jun 2010:
  
  Good question. i’m going to plump for Ignaz Semmelweiss(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis). A Hungarian chap who noticed that one of the obstetric (baby-delivering) wards in his hospital had a higher death-rate for mothers/babies than the other. By rigorous application of logic and thorough investigation he identified young doctors as the culprits. Even in those days young doctors had so little time (probs because of an unsympathetic government, chronic short-staffing and low morale!) that they were neglecting to wash their hands after dissection studies. Thus they were unwittingly transferring microbes from dead bodies to women in labour and causing bacterial infection and death. Semmelweis wasn’t believed and was treated so badly that he died in an asylum alone.
  
  The moral is: new theories should be rigorously tested before accepting/dismissing them or alternatively mediocrity is the best recipe for happiness!
- Andrew Maynard answered on 19 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi terrytibbs and smiles123,
  
  This is such a tough question – there are so many great scientists to choose from! I’ve answered similar questions before and suggested people like Richard Feynman and Michael Faraday. But I thought I would give you a slightly different answer and suggest someone I bet you haven’t heard of at all – Richard Jones.
  
  Richard is a physicist at the University of Sheffield. He is a really great (and influential) scientist who understands how to combine his science with other areas like art and social science – so the work he gets involved is relevant to all sorts of people.
  
  The thing I really wanted to say here though is that most of the really great scientists are people you will probably never hear of – not the Nobel Prize Winners or the TV personalities, but just ordinary people who do extraordinary things behind the scenes.
- Emma Pilgrim answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  Hello
  
  Erm tricky that as you might not of heard of the,. For TV scientists I have to say David Attenborough who also inspired me to pursue a career in biology.
- anon answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi terrytibbs, smillies123 and custardcreams (yum yum) oops sorry…my fav scientist? I could go for someone historic and show off my knowledge of scientific development, but no….I’m going to go for Chris Packham (on Springwatch) as I think he is rather dishy and he makes ecology sound really interesting for a whole range of people:)

Question: Whom is your favorite scientist?

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